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HOME > SOVO SCENE > BOOKS
By: RYAN LEE
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As he walks down a crowded hallway at the Regal Hollywood 24 theater late Tuesday night, Bil Boozer rounds a corner so he can claim his place at the end of a line that includes young girls dressed in British school uniforms and grandmothers dressed as witches.
He thinks back to the last time he came out for a midnight premiere of a new Harry Potter movie. When “Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire” hit theaters in November 2005, Boozer and friends arrived two hours early and were among the first 10 people in line. They passed the time playing cards and trivia.
“We resolved never to do it again, but here we are,” Boozer says at about 10:55 p.m. Tuesday as he makes his way to the back of the line, which by then was so long that he stood about 10 feet from an exit door.
Boozer, a gay doctoral student at Georgia State University, began reading the Potter novels in 2001 as a way of connecting with his niece and nephew, who were already avid fans of world’s most famous teenage wizard. The books appealed to Boozer’s affinity for fantasy literature as well as his interest in adolescent issues stemming from his academic major in education.
“It’s a — I don’t want to say ‘traditional’ — but a common kind of story about growing up and realizing who you are,” says Boozer, who adds that the Potter franchise may hold added appeal to gay and lesbian audiences.
“There’s a kind of resonance there — Harry’s got things that he doesn’t understand about himself, that he comes to understand once he realizes he’s part of this other world,” Boozer says. “His family doesn’t accept him, they want him to keep [his magical powers] a secret — that sort of thing.
“There’s a lot of places for, particularly gay youth, to kind of see some things in there to associate with themselves, things that match up with their own feelings,” he adds.
J.K. Rowling’s potter books have enjoyed rare mass appeal, so it's no surprise that gay readers are among the throngs, including those who hunt for affirming themes about outsiders in the mystical storylines.
Most notably, a June 2003 column in the Boston Phoenix by gay author Michael Bronski questioned whether the entire series could be read as a gay allegory.
“The Harry Potter books are, in a word, queer,” wrote Bronski, who added that "queer" means more than simply "gay."
“They are deeply subversive in their unremitting attacks on the receive wisdom that being ‘normal’ is good, reasonably, or even healthy,” he continued.
From the opening pages of the first Potter book — “Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone,” released in the U.S. in 1998 — Bronski and others saw Rowling's tale as remarkably similar to a coming out story.
Living with his conservative aunt and uncle after the death of his parents, young Harry is kept out of view by his family because they are ashamed of him and his ways — as a wizard. Unaware of his magical powers, Harry spends almost a dozen years shuttered in a cupboard beneath the stairs.
“Even when I first read it, I thought the cupboard could be a metaphor for the closet,” says Becca Rainey, a lesbian who lives in Virginia-Highland and read “Sorcerer’s Stone” in early 2000 at the suggestion of her girlfriend.
“She told me it was supposed to be a kids’ book, but that it was a really good story and also had these moralistic undertones,” Rainey says. “So I guess I had some preconceptions when I read it, but it doesn’t seem hard to see that some things could be considered gay.”
As the story progresses, Harry learns of his powers as a wizard, finds peers and mentors who share his magical orientation and learns to accept and celebrate himself.
But beyond the similarities between that story and a typical coming-out experience, Bronski reads gay-coded hints in everything from the color clothing the witches and wizards wear (“purple, violet and green clothing — all colors associated with homosexuality”), to the language Harry’s uncle uses in chastising Harry’s atypical ways.
“I warned you!” Vernon Dursley yells to his nephew. “I will not tolerate mention of your abnormality under this roof!”
Another reason Rowling’s books are so successful — and why opening night for Harry Potter ...
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